Mechanically Robust All-Polymer Solar Cells from Narrow Band Gap Acceptors with Hetero-Bridging Atoms
Journal article, 2020
We developed three narrow band-gap polymer acceptors PF2-DTC, PF2-DTSi, and PF2-DTGe with different bridging atoms (i.e., C, Si, and Ge). Studies found that such different bridging atoms significantly affect the crystallinity, extinction coefficient, electron mobility of the polymer acceptors, and the morphology and mechanical robustness of related active layers. In all-polymer solar cells (all-PSCs), these polymer acceptors achieved high power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) over 8.0%, while PF2-DTSi obtained the highest PCE of 10.77% due to its improved exciton dissociation, charge transport, and optimized morphology. Moreover, the PF2-DTSi-based active layer showed excellent mechanical robustness with a high toughness value of 9.3 MJ m−3 and a large elongation at a break of 8.6%, which is a great advantage for the practical applications of flexible devices. As a result, the PF2-DTSi-based flexible all-PSC retained >90% of its initial PCE (6.37%) after bending and relaxing 1,200 times at a bending radius of ∼4 mm.
all-polymer solar cells
dithienosilole
power conversion efficiency
polymer acceptor
flexible solar cells
mechanical robustness
Author
Qunping Fan
Chalmers, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Applied Chemistry
Center for Research in Advanced Materials CIMAV)
Wenyan Su
Centro de Investigacion en Materiales Avanzados
Jinan University
Chalmers, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering
Shanshan Chen
Chongqing University
Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST)
Centro de Investigacion en Materiales Avanzados
Wansun Kim
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)
Xiaobin Chen
Soochow University
Byongkyu Lee
Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST)
Tao Liu
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Ulises Mendez Romero
Centro de Investigacion en Materiales Avanzados
Chalmers, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Applied Chemistry
Ruijie Ma
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Tao Yang
University of Aveiro
Wenliu Zhuang
Guangdong Industry Polytechnic
Yu Li
Guangdong Industry Polytechnic
Yaowen Li
Soochow University
Taek Soo Kim
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)
Lintao Hou
Jinan University
Changduk Yang
Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST)
He Yan
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Donghong Yu
Sino-Danish Center for Education and Research Denmark
Aalborg University
Ergang Wang
Chalmers, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Applied Chemistry
Zhengzhou University
Joule
25424351 (eISSN)
Vol. 4 3 658-672Subject Categories
Polymer Chemistry
Textile, Rubber and Polymeric Materials
Materials Chemistry
DOI
10.1016/j.joule.2020.01.014